


As The Wheel Turns

by advanced_fanatic



Series: Bungou Stray Archives [11]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Bargains, Coma, Gen, Izumi Kyouka Needs a Hug (Bungou Stray Dogs), Kunikida Doppo Is So Done (Bungou Stray Dogs), Minor Kunikida Doppo/Dazai Osamu (Bungou Stray Dogs), Nakajima Atsushi Needs a Hug (Bungou Stray Dogs), Prices, Protective Kunikida Doppo (Bungou Stray Dogs), Sad Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Sort Of, Waking From A Coma, atsushi and kyouka are getting more worried about dazai, but he will, fukuzawa is back!!!, he is BACK baby!!!, kunikida almost fistfights mori, luckily not as well as elias has, lucy needs a nap, mori uses elias's mind trick, soon enough, tachihara continues to be an idiot, the train wreck is starting to go downhill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:55:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26408341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/advanced_fanatic/pseuds/advanced_fanatic
Summary: Atsushi, Kyouka, and Tachihara’s brother problems continue to escalate as Kunikida and Mori fight over the Archive’s involvement in stopping the Unknowing. Meanwhile, Lucy and the Toy Soldier prepare for the apocalypse as Fukuzawa grows ever closer to waking.
Relationships: Akutagawa Ryuunosuke & Lucy Maud Montgomery (Bungou Stray Dogs), Akutagawa Ryuunosuke & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Izumi Kyouka & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Kunikida Doppo & Mori Ougai (Bungou Stray Dogs), Lucy Maud Montgomery & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Lucy Maud Montgomery & Tachihara Michizou's Brother (Bungou Stray Dogs), Nakajima Atsushi & Tachihara Michizou (Bungou Stray Dogs), Tachihara Michizou & Tachihara Michizou's Brother (Bungou Stray Dogs)
Series: Bungou Stray Archives [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1740364
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	As The Wheel Turns

Kunikida stepped into Mori’s office, carrying his packet of planned expenses for their trip to the Greater Yarmouth Wax Museum. It was pretty clear that that was where the Unknowing would be, both from Tachihara’s scouting and what Atsushi and Kyouka had heard from Lucy Montgomery. As such, Kunikida had drawn up a plan for arrival time, a hotel, the various explosives that Yosano had recommended, and new locks for Tachihara’s doors, since he was convinced that someone was breaking into his house and the Eye had informed Kunikida that he was not wrong. The Eye hadn’t said anything helpful like who, exactly, was breaking in, or how to keep them out, but honestly Kunikida would take what he could get, at this point.

He knocked on Mori’s door. 

“Come in, Archivist,” the man called. Kunikida stepped in.

“I have an expense request for stopping the Unknowing.” He carefully placed the folder down on Mori’s desk. “This includes travel expenses, three possible hotel bookings, meal plans, and a map of the area. My Assistants have also requested an all-expenses-paid vacation as a reward for stopping the Unknowing, so I’ve included their various suggestions and the projected costs and amount of time. I would suggest approving the month-long Disney trip for two with a company credit card, the solid week of skydiving from Tanizaki Inc., and the private island with two months of paid time off, for two.”

“That adds up to five,” Mori said. “I thought you were capable of basic addition, Kunikida.”

“Both Atsushi and Kyouka requested that the other was included and paid for in their vacation. I’ve already approved that--all I need is your signature.”

Mori smirked. “Because you know that if I do not approve both of your Assistants will sicken and perish on the desert island because they’d left the Institute, and the continued pay is symbolic of their continued connection. I’m impressed--I hadn’t thought Fukuzawa had passed that particular piece of information on to you.”

Kunikida shrugged. He carefully did not think about how he had learned that tidbit. Mori smirked again.

“You are a talented Archivist,” he said, as if the thought was occurring to him for the first time. Kunikida didn’t react. He didn’t care for praise from Mori, and both of them knew this. However, both of them were aware of what Mori was also saying:  _ You are a talented Archivist, and Fukuzawa was not. You are a talented Archivist, which is a surprise because you are Fukuzawa’s successor _ . 

Kunikida did not care for Mori’s praise, but he hated an insult to Shachou. However, he had come with a reason, so he shoved down his emotions. “Thank you. About the expenses…”

“Oh, right.” Mori smirked. “All denied.”

“Excuse me?” 

“The expenses. I see no need for the Institute to fund four extremely expensive field trips, especially since there is no need for any of them. I would advise sending each Assistant up to meet with either myself or Francis Fitzgerald if they continue requesting this.”

“But--the Unknowing is coming up, we need to stop it!” Kunikida protested. 

“Do we?” asked Mori.

“Yes! It could end the world as we know it, and besides, isn’t it always the Archives that goes after the other rituals? The only time we  _ didn’t _ , when I was an Assistant, was the Great Twisting, and that resulted in Dazai, well…”

“Fusing with the Distortion and then dying, yes.” Mori smirked. “I heard that the death actually happened when you were present, too. Tell me, how did it feel to watch the first person you ever had to take care of die in front of you?”

“The Unknowing is going to  _ remake the world _ ,” said Kunikida. “Don’t you see how dangerous that is?”

Mori only smiled.

Down in the Archives, the three Archival Assistants were passing time by not doing any work whatsoever. Instead, they were planning on a way to find out who was breaking into Tachihara’s apartment. Lucy hadn’t been any help in the matter--she had just said that it was Strange and then larked off back to Greater Yarmouth, citing urgent business with the Circus. Tachihara hadn’t even been able to ask how his brother was doing. Akutagawa was just as unhelpful, albeit in a totally different way. Rather than being vague and leaving, he had torn through his apartment and completely ruined any evidence of what the intruder had been doing before attacking the mailman.

Atsushi had thought Dazai would find it funny, so he had texted a description of the incident to him. He told Kyouka and Tachihara that Dazai had responded, and had enjoyed the story.

Dazai hadn’t even opened the text. 

He knew this because Dazai had his phone set up so that it sent read receipts, and also because Kousuke had mentioned, when Atsushi had asked him if he’d been on his phone at the time he sent the text (although Atsushi wasn’t dumb enough to mention it was because he’d sent a text, he knew for a fact that if he exposed those insecurities to the other Hunter he would be bleeding for it the next time they met) and Kousuke had replied yes, and that someone had texted him, and that he’d asked who it was and Dazai had said nobody important and dismissed the notification and Atsushi had thanked him for the information and asked whether Dazai wanted to see him and Kyouka. Kousuke had apologized and said no, not yet. Atsushi only told Kyouka about the second part of the conversation. She didn’t need to know that Dazai was ignoring his texts. It was better if she thought that Dazai was still texting him.

It was better if he could pretend Dazai was still texting him.

Kyouka, for her part, knew that Dazai hadn’t responded to Atsushi. It was obvious. If Atsushi had been getting any regular responses from Dazai after the first day, where he sent him the entire Internet’s worth of memes, he would have spent much less time refreshing his messenger app and much more time actually doing his work. She didn’t say anything, though, to anyone other than Demon Snow. When she had said she was glad that Dazai had enjoyed the Akutagawa story, Atsushi had looked happier than he had in days. 

Meanwhile, Tachihara thought it was kind of dumb that Atsushi was texting Dazai at all hours of the day and night and still had no idea how he was doing. Seriously, his coworker couldn’t manage to fit in on ‘how are you’? He couldn’t use context clues from the texts to see how Dazai was doing? Tachihara was both disappointed and took the opportunity to gloat about the fact that he had the Archival braincell to literally everyone he knew. Atsushi’s idiocy over his  _ own _ brother did wonders for distracting Tachihara from the fact that he hadn’t tried to go find his brother after Lucy had given him a guarantee of safety from the Circus if he ever wanted to visit. For some reason, it was harder, now, knowing what he did. He still remembered the sawdust...thing, that had stood ever so still as he hacked away at his brother’s skin, and then, as he stood and stared and tried to suppress the thought that he had just destroyed all that was left of his brother, it stepped forward and, after a few moments of Tachihara staring in horror, raised the sword in its hand like a torch. If he wasn’t so terrified, he would have laughed--it would be very hard to properly chop his head off with that, after all.

As it was, he had been terrified, and had shrieked something about  _ didn’t mean to disturb your day, Mr. Monster _ and had bolted. 

What did  _ that _ make his brother think of him? He wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted nothing to do with him, or, worse, didn’t recognize him at all and tried to attack him for destroying his skin. Maybe last time he’d been in shock, or...or something, and that’s why he’d let him go. Tachihara didn’t know, and he was too afraid to go back and find out.

At least he was in possession of the Archival braincell!

Lucy put her hands on her hips. “You’re an idiot, you know that, right?”

“You’re the one who said he was my brother!” the Toy Soldier protested. “And you  _ definitely _ knew I was there, you were looking me in the eyes the whole time.”

“Yeah, but that’s not an excuse to go squat in his house for a week and then impersonate the  _ fucking mailman _ when you get caught! Honestly, you are  _ so _ lucky that idiocy is hereditary and that Atsushi and Kyouka have a lot on your minds right now--I wasn’t able to make your face look like it did before, and you didn’t put on any makeup to remedy that, so they  _ definitely _ would have killed you if any of them had noticed that you weren’t  _ actually _ bleeding.”

“Akutagawa noticed,” it pointed out.

“Akutagawa was also  _ literally _ frothing at the mouth, they wouldn’t have believed him even if he’d said something. But  _ seriously _ , that was just impulsive and  _ dumb _ . You’re literally the only other member of the Circus who’s worth jack or shit, and if you get yourself killed because you were  _ stalking a paranoid Archival Assistant with a grudge against the Stranger _ , I will  _ literally _ throw you to the Eye. Do you understand?!”

“Yes, mistress,” the Toy Soldier said.

“Great.”

“But he’s my brother--”

“Then visit him at  _ fucking work _ like fucking  _ normal _ people do. Bring him lunch, give a Statement. Hell, if you want I can send you to kidnap the Archivist--I was planning on having the deliverymen do it, but if it’ll keep you from fucking  _ breaking and entering _ , then I would be  _ glad _ to send you instead.”

“No, I--I can’t go into the Archives. That’s where the Eye is.” The Toy Soldier paused, chewing over its next words before continuing. This newfound comradery with its mistress is strange, and it doesn’t quite know where the lines are yet. But it also watched its brother (it had a  _ brother _ ! It was so  _ lucky _ !) hurl himself through her car window and do his best to rip her head off of her body, and had gotten away with just being thrown into a tree like a rag doll, so maybe it could say something. “Besides, he hates the Circus, and I’m part of the Circus.”

“I think he thinks of you as an exception, actually,” Lucy said. “But whatever. We need to start gathering an audience for the Unknowing, and I  _ will _ be accompanying you in this, because you’re too dumb to go out on your own without trying to see what Tachihara is up to, and I know for a fact that he currently has Atsushi and Kyouka guarding his apartment tonight, and they’re both strung-out enough to rip you into a thousand tiny tiny Toy Soldier pieces first and ask questions of  _ me _ later, and honestly I want to keep the Unknowing from affecting wilderness club as long as possible.”

“Can I see him after?” the Toy Soldier asked hopefully.

“Maybe,” Lucy said. “I wasn’t kidding about the Statement thing, you know!”

“I know,” it replied, and followed its mistress into the cloud of people on the streets of the city.

_ There are always consequences for forsaking the Entities. There are always consequences for leaving the Eye, Archivist _ . 

The whisper broke the still darkness, and the former Archivist turned his attention toward it.

_ There are always consequences for leaving the Eye, Archivist _ .

The darkness was quiet, peaceful, still.

_ Are you willing to face those consequences, Archivist? _

“We could all die!” Kunikida shouted. “Or worse! And you want us to just--just sit around in the Archives, waiting for the world to end?! What’s wrong with you?!”

Mori’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Do you  _ really _ want to push me, Kunikida?” he asked.

Kunikida slammed his hands on the desk. “I’m not letting my Assistants die because you’re a coward!” 

“What did you just call me, Doppo?” Mori’s voice was light and calm, and Kunikida bit back a shudder.

“I called you a  _ coward _ , because that’s what you are! You had no qualms about  _ murdering Dazai _ to stop one of these, but the moment  _ you _ don’t have a  _ perfect little plan _ that conveniently gets rid of someone  _ you’ve _ deemed useless!”

Mori smirked. “Useless, you say? You’ve been thinking of that a lot, haven’t you, Kunikida? Useless Assistants.”

“Excuse me?”

“Nakajima Atsushi hasn’t gotten a single bit of work done this week, has he? He’s been playing on his phone, sending texts that Dazai Osamu will never read. You thought he was being useless, didn’t you?”

“Shut up,” Kunikida snapped. “You have  _ no _ way of knowing what I think or feel.”

“Don’t I? I know you get angry when your Assistants don’t follow your schedule, so angry that you lock yourself in your office and record Statement after Statement in order to keep yourself from  _ ripping _ them out of them. I know you blame yourself for every injury and death that has occured in the Archives since you’ve worked there. And I  _ know _ that when you saw Nakajima Atsushi sending off yet another text that you Knew wouldn’t get a response, you thought, and I quote,  _ how pathetic, how much more useless can he get _ ?”

Kunikida glared. He had, actually, thought that. In his defense, he had gotten an hour and a half of sleep the night before in an effort to keep from popping up in people’s dreams and hadn’t had his coffee yet, and had been horribly guilty as soon as the thought popped into his head and had done his level best to repress it.

“Fine. You can read my mind. That doesn’t stop you from being a coward and a murderer and--”

“If I were you,” Mori said, “I would accept defeat and leave before that unfortunate thought of yours ends up in Nakajima’s and Izumi’s heads. Of course, you’ve completely lost the chance to shield your Assistants from  _ all _ of the fallout, but I won’t make them lose faith in their Archivist without reason.”

“What,” Kunikida said, “so you can put thoughts into people’s heads, too?”

Mori responded with a smile and a memory that hit Kunikida like a train.

_Fuck, he’s hot. Of course Mori wants hot people working for him. I don’t think Mori’s into blondes, though. I am_ _definitely_ _into blondes. Maybe when Mori steals my body he’ll get into blondes because I am. Or is it just this blonde? Fuck, what’s his name, I know he introduced himself, this is awkward, we’ve been working together for two weeks oh God he’s looking at me what do I say what do I say why the fuck did I just say that. Well, he definitely hates me now. Goodbye, hot blonde Assistant. Oh, shit, I really need to start thinking before I speak. Oh, he_ _hates_ _me, he just hit me! That hurt! Awesome, no one’s hit me properly in years! I wonder if I could get him to kill me...never mind, hot blonde Assistant, I am going to stick around and drive you insane and I intend to get punched at least twice a day,_ _fuck_ _yeah._

_...I may have taken it a step too far, oh shit, Kunikida definitely hates me now, why am I like this, what’s wrong with me? Why did I just  _ _ say _ _ that? I should just die. That would make him happy. Die, and get out of his life...oh no, I don’t want him to punch me right now. He’s still coming closer, fuck...what the fuck? This isn’t a punch. What? What’s going on? This has never happened before. I like it. Huh. This is weird. I wonder when he’s going to hit me again… _

_ OH YES KUNIKIDA PUNT ME OVER THE DESK SAY YOU HATE ME ACTUALLY HATE ME YES YES  _ _ YES _

Kunikida blinked, the foreign thoughts fading slightly. “What the fuck was that?”

“The entire time you were together, Dazai Osamu never stopped expecting you to hit him, and you never stopped fulfilling those expectations. Would you like me to show you more?”

“I’m assuming whatever else you show me will be much more traumatic than Dazai’s thoughts at various points in our relationship?” Kunikida said dryly.

Mori simply smiled. “I expect to see your Assistants at some point soon. Don’t make it too long, or else some of your more...unfortunate thoughts may wind up in their minds.”

“Understood,” Kunikida ground out. “I’ll leave the expenses folder here for you to look over, in the event that you reconsider.”

He stepped out of Mori’s office, closing the door behind him gently. His hands shook with rage, but he didn’t allow himself to express it--he didn’t deserve it. Dazai’s thoughts bounced around his head. Had all of their moments been like that, Dazai hurting or wanting to be hurt and Kunikida just not noticing?

He walked into his office, still wondering, and didn’t notice until it was too late the two men standing on either side of his desk.

“Nobody came tonight,” Atsushi said. “I thought you said you heard someone moving in here  _ every _ night, Tachihara!”

“I have! I don’t know why they didn’t show up tonight, this is so  _ annoying _ ,” he huffed. “And it’s not like you can stay over  _ every _ night, I mean, you guys are visiting Dazai this weekend, right?”

Atsushi and Kyouka looked at each other.

“He...doesn’t want us to,” Atsushi said sadly.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I texted him asking what time he wanted us to arrive. He just responded with no,” Kyouka explained. “We’re free all weekend.”

“Shit. I’m sorry, you guys,” Tachihara said.

Atsushi nodded miserably. “Maybe we can help you find  _ your _ brother, though.”

“Yeah. I mean, assuming he wants anything more to do with me than Dazai does to you guys. I don’t know if you noticed, but I  _ literally _ hacked off his skin. He probably pissed at me.”

“You could still try to seek him out, see what happens,” Atsushi said.

“I know, and I want to, I’m just scared. What if--”

He was cut off by a loud crash outside his window. The three Archival Assistants ran over just in time to see Lucy dragging a humanoid figure dressed like a nutcracker out of the Dumpster.

“What the fuck,” said Atsushi.

“Oh my gosh, you guys, I think that’s my brother!” Tachihara shouted.

“Your brother has a terrible fashion sense,” Kyouka said.

“That’s not  _ his _ fault,” Tachihara said.

“Assuming he dresses himself, yes, it is,” Atsushi replied. “And Lucy doesn’t dress up the members of the Circus. They do that to themselves.”

“Your brother is a fashion  _ atrocity _ ,” Kyouka added.

Tachihara pouted.

That night, he left his door unlocked, and a plate of his brother’s favorite cookies and a change of clothes in the kitchen.

“Idiot!” Lucy shrieked. “Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot! I can’t take my eyes off of you for five fucking seconds, can I? Idiot!”

“I just wanted to see him,” the Toy Soldier muttered.

“You’re a fucking stalker! That’s what you are! Oh my fucking God! Just fucking talk to him, what the  _ fuck _ ?!”

“What if he doesn’t want to talk to me?” the Toy Soldier asked. “He said he was scared to seek me out.”

“Because  _ he’s as big a fucking idiot as you are _ ! Why can’t I be friends with  _ one _ smart person, for  _ once _ in my life?! Why?!”

“Your personality attracts idiots,” the Toy Soldier told her.

“Aaauuuuuugggghhhh,” Lucy groaned, dragging it into the delivery van. Almost immediately, the Toy Soldier saw its posture change. Lucy Maud Montgomery, ringmaster of the Circus, smirked at the deliverymen when it saw the package in the back. “Excellent work, Steinbeck, Lovecraft. We’ll start on the Archivist as soon as we get back! Toy Soldier, be a dear and watch over our guest for me, will you?”

“Yes, mistress,” it said, and climbed into the back. Kunikida Doppo glared at it, and it smiled, drinking in his fear.

This was going to be  _ fun _ .

_ There are always consequences for forsaking the Eye. Are you willing to face those consequences? _

Yes, thought the man in the hospital bed, and he broke through the surface of his consciousness as machines beeped wildly around him. Fukuzawa Yukichi opened his empty eye sockets for the first time in over a year, and moved his head around the room.

He had work to do.


End file.
